1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to the management of attractions and rides at a venue which automatically monitors the ride or attraction at a venue and prevents use of the same until maintenance is performed.
2. General Background and State of the Art
In theme parks and certain other venues, certain ride or attraction critical corrective maintenance and legislated Preventive Maintenance (PM) must be completed at the ride or attraction before the ride or attraction is available for patron use. Both “ride” and “attraction” are used interchangeably throughout this disclosure to refer to a ride or attraction at a venue, such as at an amusement park.
In such parks and venues, the engineering department or a similar department is responsible for ensuring that the ride or attraction's critical and regulatory maintenance work is completed prior to allowing the ride or attraction components to become available for patron usage. This regulatory maintenance is the Amusement Ride Law pertaining to Preventive Maintenance work that must be performed on the attraction components on a recurring basis. In addition, there are maintenance procedures that the Owner/Operator deems must be performed on the attraction components on a recurring basis, in addition to the Ride Law mandated Preventive Maintenances. The Owner/Operator and legislated Ride Law Preventive Maintenance procedures are based on the manufacturer's recommended time, distance or cycle schedule. It is imperative that the completion of these and other attraction component Preventive maintenance work is effectively and efficiently tracked to ensure that attraction components are available for patron usage only after this work has been performed.
Thus, theme park attractions are required by law and by the rules of preventive maintenance to be maintained in a satisfactory manner. Such rides and attractions generally have a recommended maintenance schedule.
There is a need for a system that automatically determines whether or not a theme park attraction component has had all Ride Law and Owner/Operator mandated Preventive Maintenance performed on it and any ride-critical Preventive Maintenance work. Such a system should automatically prohibit any component from being used if the Ride Law and Owner/Operator mandated Preventive Maintenance and ride-critical Preventive Maintenance work has not been performed or if a Corrective Maintenance Work Order has not been completed.